Executive Summary
- Our What’s That App? series on the Get Support blog delves into the detail of those lesser-known apps, many of which are available with Microsoft 365.
- In this edition of What’s That App?, we’re looking at Microsoft FindTime, an Outlook add-in which is was designed to take the stress out of organising meeting times to suit everyone.
- FindTime uses a combination of smart calendar syncing and attendee voting to get meetings arranged and booked in faster than ever before.
Introduction
For as long as mankind has done business, we’ve dealt with a very common – and very frustrating – problem.
Finding a meeting time that suits everyone.
It’s bad enough when you’re only trying to set up a meeting with internal colleagues, but when you also have to wrangle multiple attendees from other organisations, well, it can become a real headache, real fast.
So, if you’ve ever lost hours (or even days) emailing and calling around just to find that perfect timeslot that suits everyone, today’s What’s That App? will be just your cup of tea.
Microsoft FindTime was designed to solve precisely this problem, saving you time and making meeting planning much easier for everyone. Even better, it’s free if you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber with access to Exchange Online.
Here’s what you need to know.
What is Microsoft FindTime?
Microsoft FindTime is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook which enables organisers to quickly ‘find time’ to meet with others – even across companies.
As long as the organiser of the meeting is a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscriber using Microsoft Outlook, they can use FindTime to schedule a meeting and automatically check busy/available days and hourly slots in attendees’ calendars. FindTime will then send an email invitation for the most suitable slot and include a poll which attendees can respond to and either accept, reject, or propose a new time.
Once everyone has voted via the poll website and consensus has been reached, the meeting will be scheduled – saving all of the usual back-and-forth (and headaches) associated with meeting scheduling.
The genesis of Microsoft FindTime is actually noteworthy, because the feature was incubated in Microsoft Garage, a small team within Microsoft which is focused on experimenting with smaller, more niche ideas.
How to schedule a meeting with Microsoft FindTime
Once installed to Microsoft Outlook either via the desktop app or Outlook for the web, the FindTime add-in will open up new options when composing a new email. As long as the organiser’s account has a Microsoft 365 subscription, organisers will then see a new “Reply with meeting poll” button.
When clicked, FindTime will start working its magic by identifying the best time and date for all attendees.
If all attendees in the CC and BC fields are Microsoft 365 user accounts, FindTime will automatically use the free/busy statuses from each user’s Outlook calendar to inform its selection of time and date. If auto-scheduling is enabled by the organiser and if everyone is free at the same time, it’s possible for a meeting to be accepted by all attendees automatically.
If any attendees aren’t using Microsoft 365, the meeting poll will give them a chance to clarify their availability. The poll website will also show how others have voted, and how close the group is to finding consensus, making the process even faster. The best part is that all of this happens for one user at a time, on their own schedule, meaning there’s none of the back-and-forth calendar tennis we’ve all done at some point in our professional lives.
What can FindTime do for your business?
Now that you’re familiar with how FindTime works, you might be wondering exactly what it can do for your organisation.
Here are the key benefits to Microsoft FindTime and why you might want to give it a shot:
- Save the wasted time wrangling meeting attendees. We all know how long it can take to find a slot which is suitable for everyone when scheduling meetings. FindTime automates all of this and saves you time.
- Democratise your meeting scheduling. With FindTime, your colleagues and external partners will be able to see others’ availability via the voting system, then make their decision accordingly. It’s fairer, and it’s faster.
- It’s a totally free add-in for Outlook. Assuming you’re already using Microsoft 365 (and even if your attendees aren’t), FindTime is a totally free tool to improve productivity and save time – what’s not to love?
How to start using Microsoft FindTime today
As we explained above, if you’re looking to organise meetings using Microsoft FindTime, you’ll need an active Microsoft 365 subscription.
The pole and voting systems all work without 365 accounts, so you can share FindTime invites with anyone, but of course they work even better when synced up with the busy/available slot status of other Microsoft 365 enabled accounts.
To start using FindTime now, you can install the add-in by following the simple steps on the Microsoft website now as an add-in for Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac, and Outlook on the web.
What even more ways to save your business time?
At Get Support, we’ve spent decades working with SMEs across the UK to help them streamline their IT support processes – whether remote, in-house, or a mix of the two.
We’re an approved Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), meaning we can help you get up and running with the full suite of Microsoft 365 products in your business – and help you get the absolute most out of them.
For a more personalised picture of how Microsoft products, including Microsoft FindTime, can be incorporated into your business to save time and money, call us today on 01865 594 000 or just fill in the form below.
